What Do You Call Out-Of-Control Oligarchs? Hooligans

Vladimir Putin has one word for out-of-control oligarchs: “hooliganism.”

Reuters

That’s how Russia’s prime minister Wednesday described the prime-time punch-up between two wealthy tycoons shown on a national TV talk show Sunday night.

In the first official reaction to the fisticuffs — banking magnate Alexander Lebedev took three quick shots to the side of the head of Sergei Polonsky, knocking the burly one-time real-estate tycoon from the stage — the prime minister made clear that his allies know better how to behave.

“We have the Front, we don’t fight with anyone,” Mr. Putin told a meeting of members of his All-Russian Popular Front, an umbrella group of unions and civic organizations created to build support for the ruling United Russia Party. “They don’t have a front, so they hit each other in the ear. Hooliganism,” Mr. Putin said, according to official news agency reports.